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Top 5 Dream Theater Albums
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Psychedelic Paul View Drop Down
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Points: 39936 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Psychedelic Paul Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2022 at 06:28
Originally posted by nick_h_nz nick_h_nz wrote:

Originally posted by Psychedelic Paul Psychedelic Paul wrote:

Top 5 update with ProgAardvark & RichardH's votes added:-

1. Images & Words (31 points)
1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (31 points)
3. Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (27 points)
4. Awake (25 points)
5. Octavarium (20 points)

6. Systematic Chaos (13 points)


In A Dramatic Turn of Events, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence has taken the joint lead with Images and Words! Shocked

Which more or less agrees with what I said in my post, that irrelevant of the order of these five, it tends to always be these five which top any poll of Dream Theater albums. 🤗

Four out of five of those albums are in my own personal Top 5 too, which makes a nice change. Big smile
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nick_h_nz View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Psychedelic Paul Psychedelic Paul wrote:

Top 5 update with ProgAardvark & RichardH's votes added:-

1. Images & Words (31 points)
1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (31 points)
3. Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (27 points)
4. Awake (25 points)
5. Octavarium (20 points)

6. Systematic Chaos (13 points)


In A Dramatic Turn of Events, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence has taken the joint lead with Images and Words! Shocked

Which more or less agrees with what I said in my post, that irrelevant of the order of these five, it tends to always be these five which top any poll of Dream Theater albums. 🤗
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Psychedelic Paul View Drop Down
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Top 5 update with ProgAardvark & RichardH's votes added:-

1. Images & Words (31 points)
1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (31 points)
3. Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (27 points)
4. Awake (25 points)
5. Octavarium (20 points)

6. Systematic Chaos (13 points)


In A Dramatic Turn of Events, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence has taken the joint lead with Images and Words! Shocked
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nick_h_nz View Drop Down
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Originally posted by richardh richardh wrote:

1 A Change Of Seasons *
2. Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
3. Awake
4. Octavarium
5. The Astonishing **

* not considered a full blown album release as it includes a live tribute side. However it all works for me.

** ok it may seem like some kind of madness to put this ahead of I&W and SFAM but I've never been a fan of either of those albums. The synthetic drum sound on I&W is horrible (to my ears) and SFAM never resonated with me generally.

If it’s madness, it’s one I share - as I find The Astonishing to be a more enjoyable album than both I&W and SFAM, too,

Also, A Change of Seasons is my favourite DT release by a long way. I have never really understood why the band insists on calling it an ep.

I wonder how well Change might have fared, if everyone voting here considered it an album.

This is the current ranking (one vote, one point - rather than using Paul’s method):

1= Metropolis (9 votes)
1= Octavarium (9 votes)
3. Six Degrees (8 votes)
4= Awake (7 votes)
4= Images (7 votes)

6= Black Clouds (3 votes)
6= Change (3 votes)
6= Chaos (3 votes)
6= Train (3 votes)

10= Astonishing (2 votes)
10= Dream and Day (2 votes)
10= Falling (2 votes)

13= Dramatic (1 vote)
13= View (1 vote)

15= Distance (0 votes)
15= Dream Theater (0 votes)

Distance and View are possibly still too new (especially View) to gain many votes, but it doesn’t surprise me in the least that the eponymous album has so few. It’s easily the worst.

Dramatic Turn would have two votes, as I voted for it, too - but as it was my fifth place, then if I include Change of Seasons as the top, then I need to drop it.

To be honest, even if the order of the top five listed here (one vote, one point) is up for debate, it’s hard to deny that these are routinely listed as the five greatest DT albums. They’re not my five, but I can totally understand why they are almost always the top five in any poll on this forum, or anywhere else.
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Psychedelic Paul View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Dellinger Dellinger wrote:

I love this band, and it's among my favourite 5 ones. Yet, somehow I don't happen to love almost any whole album, they always have a few weaker songs (though if I put together all the songs that I like from each album together, most of them would make a good over 50 min album anyway... at least up to the point in which Portnoy left, for I find a good decrease in their quality from that point on). However, I can try to put my favourite albums. First, Train of Thought. Then, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (CD 1 for me is the best disc they have released, but unfortunatley it's a double album, and I don't really enjoy so much the title suite). And then Octavarium, Images and Words, and Metropolis II.

I'd recommend the double album "Dream Theater's Greatest Hit (and 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs)" if you want to hear the best of all of their songs, including Dream Theater's one and only genuine greatest hit, "Pull Me Under". Thumbs Up
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richardh View Drop Down
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1 A Change Of Seasons *
2. Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
3. Awake
4. Octavarium
5. The Astonishing **

* not considered a full blown album release as it includes a live tribute side. However it all works for me.

** ok it may seem like some kind of madness to put this ahead of I&W and SFAM but I've never been a fan of either of those albums. The synthetic drum sound on I&W is horrible (to my ears) and SFAM never resonated with me generally.
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Dellinger View Drop Down
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I love this band, and it's among my favourite 5 ones. Yet, somehow I don't happen to love almost any whole album, they always have a few weaker songs (though if I put together all the songs that I like from each album together, most of them would make a good over 50 min album anyway... at least up to the point in which Portnoy left, for I find a good decrease in their quality from that point on). However, I can try to put my favourite albums. First, Train of Thought. Then, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (CD 1 for me is the best disc they have released, but unfortunatley it's a double album, and I don't really enjoy so much the title suite). And then Octavarium, Images and Words, and Metropolis II.
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nick_h_nz View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Rednight Rednight wrote:

I would have preferred a simple poll for best album with all their albums listed. The valued opinions of the P.A. brethren would cut to the heart of the matter for this talented group of musicians. This thread has been useful so far as identifying Images & Words as their best. A future purchase should prove enlightening.
Paul seems to like doing it this way. If we ignore the Aardvark for the moment, then for comparison with how Paul is counting the votes at this stage, a simple poll where people vote once for their favourite album (no multiple vote allowed), and a simple poll wheee people vote for their five favourite albums (multiple votes allowed, and yes, I’m aware that it is open for abuse, and this is one of the reasons Paul probably does his “polls” in this manner instead):

Simple poll, no multiple vote (one vote = one point)

1. Images and Words (3 votes, 3 points)
2= Awake (2 votes, 2 points)
2= Six Degrees (2 votes, 2 points)
3= Astonishing (1 vote, 1 point)
3= Metropolis (1 vote, 1 point)
3= Octavarium (1 vote, 1 point)

(NB I like Astonishing and Six Degrees more or less equally, so if I had given my vote to Six Degrees, rather than Astonishing, then that album would be in joint first place with I&W.)

Simple poll, multiple votes allowed (one vote = one point)

1. Metropolis SFAM (9 votes, 9 points)
2= Images and Words (7 votes, 7 points)
2= Octavarium (7 votes, 7 points)
4= Awake (6 votes, 6 points)
4= Six Degrees (6 votes, 6 points)

Paul’s poll (one vote ≠ one point)

1. Images and Words (7 votes, 31 points)
2. Metropolis (9 votes, 27 points)
3. Six Degrees (6 votes, 25 points)
4. Awake (6 votes, 22 points)
5. Octavarium (7 votes, 14 points)

“Lies, damned lies, and statistics”, Benjamin Disraeli 
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1. Systematic Chaos
2. Octavarium
3. Falling Into Infinity
4. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
5. A View From the Top of the World
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I would have preferred a simple poll for best album with all their albums listed. The valued opinions of the P.A. brethren would cut to the heart of the matter for this talented group of musicians. This thread has been useful so far as identifying Images & Words as their best. A future purchase should prove enlightening.

Edited by Rednight - August 06 2022 at 10:39
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Psychedelic Paul View Drop Down
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This is how the Top 5 looks so far after ten rounds of voting:-

1. Images & Words (31 points)
2. Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (27 points)
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (25 points)
4. Awake (22 points)
5. Octavarium (14 points)
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Originally posted by yogev yogev wrote:

Originally posted by nick_h_nz nick_h_nz wrote:

I guess I get to use this picture again, from the last time this question (or one similar) was asked. Since I posted this, I have listened to Distance Over Time, but like Paul, have not yet listened to the latest.




Scenes From a Memory in the C tier?? Are you OK??
I put The Astonishing in my A tier, and what you’re worried about is SFAM in the C tier? 😜

Am I ok? Well, no, probably not. But it’s ok not to be ok. It’s normal.

SFAM has never really gelled with me. I was extremely disappointed when I first bought/heard it, as I do very much like Metropolis and, as I’ve said, A Change of Seasons is my favourite DT release. I guess it simply didn’t match my expectations in any way, shape or form. That said, it did have some standout tracks right from first listening (eg Home), so I can’t say I disliked it entirely. But I really didn’t appreciate it. At all. Over time, I have grow to like it, and it’s actually a far better album that I first thought - but it’s never going to be a favourite of mine.

What probably changed it for me was Live Scenes, which I bought (despite still not particularly liking the album being performed) mainly because it contained a full live version of A Change of Seasons; but also because there have been several instances over the years where I have found the live album of an album to be considerably more enjoyable than the studio. While this isn’t quite the case with SFAM, it did definitely help me get over my shattered expectations, and find an album I did actually enjoy. But I guess that elevated it to….C tier! 😜
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Psychedelic Paul View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Cristi Cristi wrote:

^ spam? Like you have just done in your post above? Disapprove

I knew you'd see the funny side of it, or maybe not, but I couldn't resist the temptation when I saw SFAM looks so much like SPAM, especially with my eyesight being what it is. Big smile
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^ spam? Like you have just done in your post above? Disapprove
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Psychedelic Paul View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Cristi Cristi wrote:

Originally posted by yogev yogev wrote:

Didn't meant to be rude, just wanted to hear his thoughts about this.


ok.
SFAM is not a favorite of mine either. 
Maybe you prefer SPAM instead. Tongue
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Originally posted by yogev yogev wrote:

Didn't meant to be rude, just wanted to hear his thoughts about this.


ok.
SFAM is not a favorite of mine either. 
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yogev View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Cristi Cristi wrote:

Originally posted by yogev yogev wrote:

Originally posted by nick_h_nz nick_h_nz wrote:

I guess I get to use this picture again, from the last time this question (or one similar) was asked. Since I posted this, I have listened to Distance Over Time, but like Paul, have not yet listened to the latest.




Scenes From a Memory in the C tier?? Are you OK??

No need to be rude.
I disagree with his ranking, too. 


Didn't meant to be rude, just wanted to hear his thoughts about this.
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Originally posted by yogev yogev wrote:

Originally posted by nick_h_nz nick_h_nz wrote:

I guess I get to use this picture again, from the last time this question (or one similar) was asked. Since I posted this, I have listened to Distance Over Time, but like Paul, have not yet listened to the latest.




Scenes From a Memory in the C tier?? Are you OK??

No need to be rude.
I disagree with his ranking, too. 
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Originally posted by nick_h_nz nick_h_nz wrote:

I guess I get to use this picture again, from the last time this question (or one similar) was asked. Since I posted this, I have listened to Distance Over Time, but like Paul, have not yet listened to the latest.




Scenes From a Memory in the C tier?? Are you OK??
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Here are my top 5 favorite DT albums:

1. Octavarium
2. Awake
3. Six Degrees of Inner Tubulence
4. Train of Thought
5. Metropolis Pt.2
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